


Paradox

by orphan_account



Series: Adventures in Pete's World [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Doctor, Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey... Stuff, fluffy at the end, kinda angst at the begining, the Doctor spoilers his future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 06:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4776686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>" When the man turned towards him, he had expected everything, except what he saw. There, standing in front of him, wearing his usual light blue shirt with tie, coat and pinstriped suit, his brown hair covered in snowflakes, was the Doctor. He looked a lot older and more tired than the last time he saw him and for a moment he took pity on him. After all he hadn’t been lucky enough to spend the rest of his life with Rose, loving her and being loved by her. But the pity was quickly replaced by concern. What was that Time Lord doing in their house? "</p><p>The Tenth Doctor duplicate wakes up one night hearing some noises downstairs: what he doesn't expect is to find the Time Lord who left him and Rose in Pete's World walking around their living room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradox

**Author's Note:**

> This story is unbetad and translated from another language, if there are mistakes PLEASE let me know!

The Doctor was suddenly startled awake by some noises coming from the living room downstairs. Instinctively his head tuned to his right, making sure Rose was safe: she was lying asleep on her side of her bed, snuggled under a comfy and fluffy blanket, her blonde hair fell messily around her neck and shoulders and she had a blissful smile on her face. Being careful not to wake her, he stood up from the warm bed and, grabbing his sonic screwdriver that was lying on his bedside table, he rapidly yet quietly left the room.

Quickly sliding down the spiral staircases that led to the other floors of their suburban house, the Doctor found himself in the dark living room dimly illuminated by the moonlight coming from the glass doors on his left that led to the back garden where, fully covered in snow, their Tardis stood fiercely.

The man quickly scanned the room with his chocolate brown eyes until he saw him: there, standing between the doors and the sofa, was a man who fortunately was facing the other way. He was tall but very skinny so it wouldn’t be a problem to fight with him, if there was the need. And by need he meant if that intruder even thought about harming his Rose, who was still blissfully sleeping upstairs in their bed.

Taking advantage from the fact that the man didn’t seem to have noticed him and from the sudden wave of adrenaline caused by the thought of protecting Rose from that intruder, the Doctor stealthily approached him until he was a couple of steps away from his back and, pointing the sonic screwdriver between his shoulder blades, he said, clear and firm “Don’t you dare move”

When the man turned towards him, he had expected everything, except what he saw. There, standing in front of him, wearing his usual light blue shirt with tie, coat and pinstriped suit, his brown hair covered in snowflakes, was the Doctor. He looked a lot older and more tired than the last time he saw him and for a moment he took pity on him. After all he hadn’t been lucky enough to spend the rest of his life with Rose, loving her and being loved by her. But the pity was quickly replaced by concern. What was that Time Lord doing in their house?

“What?” they asked simultaneously with the same surprised voice.

 

* * *

 

The Tardis landed with a rough jolt and the Doctor was unceremoniously sent onto the grating floor. Standing up painfully, the Time Lord approached the door and, after a long intake of breath, he opened it, peering outside. Well that was weird. That didn’t look at all like the Powell Estate… The Doctor got out of the Tardis and started walking towards the blue house that stood in front of him, the snow creaking under his feet with each step.

This was his last journey. Seeing his Rose for the last time. He wanted so badly for her to be the first face and the last face that face saw. He wanted so badly to visit her in the other universe, with the other him. He wanted so badly to make sure they were happy, to know if they were married, if they had kids… But he knew it wasn’t possible. So he had set the coordinates for the Powell Estate and had ended up here in the garden of this suburban house.

When he reached the glass doors that led inside, the Doctor peered through the cold glass and, after being certain none was home, he decided to enter. When he put foot into the living room, he felt a strong tingle at the back of his neck, and he jumped a bit, surprised by the sudden feeling. It was a strange feeling, but it was familiar. He decided to ignore it anyway, thinking it was probably caused by the fact that he was about to regenerate, and walked fully through the doors and into the living room. It wasn’t bad at all if he said so himself, there was a big sofa, a fireplace, and the kitchen and the dining room were conjunct. The walls were covered with photos of smiling people, but he couldn’t make out the faces because it was too dark, even for his superior sight.

He was so busy poking around some stranger’s privacy that he didn’t notice the tingle at the back of his neck had increased intensity until he heard a voice, _his_ voice, proclaim from behind him “Don’t you dare move”

Instead of listening to that threatening voice, the Doctor spun around and found himself staring back at him, sonic screwdriver pointing at his chest now. Dimly illuminated by the moonlight, the Doctor looked slightly older than last time he left him in Pete’s world with Rose. His short brown hair was sticking in every direction possible like a porcupine and he was wearing a simple and rather large t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

“What?” they asked simultaneously with the same surprised voice.

When he recovered from the initial shock, the Doctor felt a wave of pure panic run through him and he felt his weak knees gave out.

“What are you doing here?” he asked coldly, without lowering his sonic screwdriver, even if he already knew the answer. He was here for Rose, obviously. He had come here to take her back. It wasn’t unfair. He loved Rose with all himself and his singular heart beat only for her. It wasn’t fair that for a simple whim that Time Lord decided to take her away from what had now became her home. He wouldn’t allow it.

“Well…” the other Time Lord started, mentally thanking his Tardis for taking him exactly where he needed it “I shouldn’t be here. I had set the coordinates for the Powell Estate in 2005, on New Year, but the Tardis brought me here…” his gaze slid from to the black staircase behind the man’s back, which probably led to the other rooms of the house and to her “I guess Rose’s here too…” he continued taking a step forward towards the staircase.

He was surprised when the other Doctor took a step towards it too, putting himself between him and the staircase, his hand gripping tightly his sonic screwdriver. The two of them stared at each other for a while and the Time Lord could read the other man’s emotions in his eyes. Anger, jealousy, but above all fear.

The Doctor stared at the Time Lord coolly, his jaw twitching slightly. He wouldn’t allow it. He wouldn’t let him to take his Rose away. Not now. He knew it was the girl’s decision, but she had choose him, with his singular heart and a little Tardis coral, over the Time Lord that day at the beach. And she kept saying him, during these amazing three years and half they spent together here in this universe, that she was never gonna leave him for nothing or none, and that he had to stop being so terrified at the mere thought of losing her cause that’s never gonna happen.

Back at the present, the Doctor glared coldly at the Time Lord in front of him, who was now watching him with comprehension. He knew what the Oncoming Storm was capable of. That man had lost everything, nothing would stop him from taking Rose away from him. But first he had to pass on his body.

“I’m not here to take her away from you” the Time Lord whispered quietly, understanding every thought of his other self “Now you belong to her and she belongs to you. I could never take her away from you… I just wanted to see that she was safe, that she was happy… That you two were happy…” he saw something change in the man’s eyes so he added “I guess she’s sleeping now… I don’t want you to wake her up… What about you tell me how your lives are going?”

Suddenly every muscle of the human Doctor relaxed with a sigh and he quickly put his sonic away in one of his sweatpants’ pockets, turning on the living room’s light in the meantime.

“I’m sorry” he quickly said, realizing how exhausted the Time Lord must be without his Rose taking care of him “I shouldn’t have reacted like this, being so… overprotective… it’s just-“ with another sigh he let himself fall on the sofa, immediately followed by the Time Lord.

“Don’t be sorry” he said, honestly “After all, I would have done the same thing, no?”

The Doctor smiled at that and he asked “Are you sure you don’t want to talk to her?”

The Time Lord thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.

“No” he said resulted “It would only be hard to say goodbye for both of us, especially for me…” he added in a whisper, before cheering up the moment asking “So? How are your lives here with the Tylers?”

The Doctor made a little nervous laugh at that, scratching the back of his neck with a hand.

“Not that bad, except for the first few months” he started saying under the Time Lord’s curious gaze “As soon as you left us on that beach in Norway Jackie started slapping me, and she kept going like this whenever she had the change for the first three months, until we moved in this house”

“What about Rose?” asked the Time Lord, even if he was afraid of a negative answer “Did she accept the metacrisis without problems?”

“Yes, I wouldn’t have expected that, given how she reacted to our first regeneration with her” answered the man “The only thing he resented was our kiss” he continued with hesitation. Seeing the confused expression on the Time Lord’s face, he explained “She felt guilty because she had kissed me in front of you, she kept saying that she shouldn’t have done that, she thought you hated her for that-“

“I could never hate her” the Time Lord immediately said and the other man agreed with a quiet ‘I know’ “How long have you been here?”

“Three years, eight months, five days and nine hours” the Doctor readily said, before he added more shyly “And we’ve been married for nine months and half”

The Doctor’s eye brightened at those words and he automatically searched for the shiny ring at the other man’s left hand, and he smiled affectionately.

“I always knew I didn’t deserve her” he murmured, absent-mindedly playing with his wedding ring “But I understood that for her I wasn’t just a broken old Time Lord destroyed by the war… She made me feel- made _us_ feel- alive again...”

“Yep, he’s a fantastic girl”

Hearing this voice, both Doctors turned towards the source of the sound and they simultaneously opened their mouths surprised.

Leaning against the fireplace with his arms and legs crossed at the ankle, wearing the usual leather jacket and dark jumper, there was the Doctor

Another Doctor.

He was holding in his arms a black cat, Stormageddon, that was purring while he starched his ears. After he placed the cat gently on the ground, the new arrived looked back and forth between the other him with two hearts and the human Doctor at least five times before he asked “What the hell did you do?”

“Instantaneous biological metacrisis” the human Doctor quickly explained, still quite shocked by finding not one, but two Time Lords in his house.

“How did you end up here?” asked the other Time Lord.

“I was working with Jack on the Tardis on that machine we took from Margaret the Slitheen” the youngest Doctor started explaining while his perplexed gaze kept shifting between the two Doctors “When I suddenly materialized in another Tardis, cause apparently also Tardis can duplicate, now” he finished with irony.

“Of course!” exclaimed the other Time Lord, jumping up from the sofa “It was your Tardis! She brought me here, I didn’t materialize here with mine!” he continued, nodding at the time machine parked at the centre of the garden “And the tingle I felt when I entered here was you, because even if you’re human now you’re still telepathic.

“Exactly” said the human Doctor, standing up too “And to be honest, Rose’s telepathic too… She can communicate with the Tardis and, well” he started explaining, when his statement was followed by two incredulous ‘what?’ “When I asked her to marry me we created a telepathic bond between us”

His affirmation was followed by an astonished silence. There weren’t words to describe what that meant. Rose had agreed to share every memory and feeling with the Doctor, and that meant she had seen everything that made him, well, _him_. And despite it she never considered leaving him.

“What did we ever do to deserve her?” asked the youngest Doctor, with a soft voice that he used only for Rose.

“Believe me, I still haven’t found an answer for that” said the human Doctor before he clasped his hands, moving to the technical part “So, you may have noticed that this is definitively a paradox”

“You’re really smart, aren’t you?” commented ironically the Doctor with the leather jacket, apparently ignoring the fact that he was insulting a future version of himself.

 

“And that means” continued the human Doctor, ignoring that comment “That we have two possibilities. To destroy both universes with some planets and satellites, or to somehow fix the paradox in the next… uh… twenty nine minutes?”

“I bet ten” said the other Time Lord, rising an eyebrow.

“Let’s make nine” added the youngest of the three.

“Oi! It’s my universe we’re talking about!” snapped the human Doctor, hands on his hips.

The Time Lord wearing jacket and tie murmured something about Donna’s genes and the one with the leather jacket rose an eyebrow but didn’t ask anything.

“The point is” continued the youngest of the three “Me and this… _hottie_ with sandshoes” he nodded with amusement at the other Time Lord who murmured a childish ‘They are not sandshoes’ looking down at his chucks “Must get back to the other universe in the right time and in the right place”

“And above all” interrupted the human Doctor “we need to make sure that your memory” and while he was talking he nodded at his previous self “Is erased. I don’t remember anything of this so it’s better not to create a paradox. While you” he then said, turning towards the other Time Lord “Can keep this memory, it won’t cause any damage. Consider this as a gift from me and Rose”

Hearing these words the Time Lord sighed relived with tears in his eyes. It would have been totally unfair if he had to erase his memory after seeing how happy his other self and Rose were in this universe.

“All right” he said solemnly and the other two nodded.

“We just have to open the crack he and I made when we were sent here” started explaining the Doctor with the leather jacket.

“… Reverse the polarity…” continued the human Doctor.

“… Activate the interdimensional radar…”

“… And we should get back to our universe without destroying anything”

“Should we?”

“Of course, because I’m a genius”

“You think you’re so impressive?”

“I _am_ so impressive!”

The three of them started arguing over who was the most impressive until they heard a fourth voice and stopped talking, frozen like statues.

“Look at you, thinking you’re the smartest in the room”

The three Doctors turned towards the source of the sound and opened their eyes surprised. Leaning against the spiral staircases, her blonde hair falling messily on her shoulders and a sweet smile on her face, there was Rose Tyler.

Evidently pregnant.

“Rose” whispered the Time Lord with jacket and tie, looking at her with watery eyes.

The girl approached them in a dozen of steps, an amused and curious expression on her face, and when she reached them she grabbed her Doctor’s hand, interweaving their fingers.

“You could have warned me that your friends were coming over” she teased him, standing on tip toes to kiss him quickly, mostly to let him know everything was alright. At this sight the youngest Doctor’s blue eyes widened even more than before.

The blonde girl let go of her husband’s hand before approaching the other Time Lord and, smiling sweetly at him, she hugged him, as much as her huge belly allowed. The man gripped her tightly, like she was his safety net, and hid his face in the crook of her neck. After a while Rose loosened the hug and gently grabbed his face in her hands, smiling up at him. His eyes were puffy and red and some tears were streaming down his cheeks. Feeling her heart break at the sight of her Doctor so tired and exhausted, she stood on tiptoes and left a chaste and delicate kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“Rose Tyler, I-“ he tried to say, but a knot in his throat prevented him for finishing the sentence.

“I know” Rose said, brushing his cheeks with her thumbs “I think I always knew… And you say it to me everyday” she added more playfully, nodding at her husband with a fond expression on her face.

The Time Lord tried to laugh but all what came out was a breathless hiccup. Moistening her lips, she took his chin in a hand, gently forcing him to look at her.

“Promise me something” she said with seriousness, looking at him straight in the eye “Promise me you’ll try to go one, find again that River Song you met at the library, promise me you’ll try to be happy”

The Time Lord tried to argue that it was impossible, that there couldn’t possibly be a version of him that didn’t love her, that he would never forget her, but in the end he gave up. He couldn’t deny his Rose anything.

“I promise you” he said solemnly. Rose nodded before she let go of his face, turning towards the youngest Doctor, who had stood staring at the dialogue with concerned eyes.

“Aw, come here you” said the girl with a little laugh, hugging the Time Lord, whose arms slowly and carefully sneaked around her back.

“Rose” he murmured amazed, staring at her huge belly that was pressed against his own “You’re pregnant”

“Your deducting skills are truly impressive” commented the girl, smiling against his leather jacket. When she let go of him she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his nose, and the Doctor’s blue eyes widened even more than before, making him look like a very surprised and yet confused owl.

“Sorry, I always wanted to do that” she laughed, before punching his arm earning a confused ‘ouch!’ from him “And this is for leaving Jack on Satellite 5”

“I didn’t-“ he tried to argue, rubbing at the painful spot on his arm, but his future human self, used to his wife’s quickly changing moods, shook his head, telling him to shut up.

Rose smiled satisfied before walking towards her Doctor who instinctively grabbed her hand interweaving their fingers.

“Doctors” she said, rather comically “I think it’s time for you two to go, unless you want to cause the end of the world again…”

The Doctor with tie and jacked, approaching the glass doors, laughed at that and, before stepping outside in the cold garden, he turned around and said “Rose Tyler, it was a wonderful last date” and then, well knowing that if he didn’t go now he wouldn’t be able to, he stepped outside and started walking towards the couple’s Tardis.

The Doctor with the leather jacked followed his lead but, when he reached the doors, he turned around and, with one of his best smiles, said “It’s nice to know that my future is in safe hands” and he stepped outside too.

The Doctor and Rose stood in their living room, watching the two Time Lord disappear inside the Tardis. The time machine’s light started glowing as if she was starting to dematerialize, but she stayed where she was, which meant that only her two passengers were dematerializing and coming back to their respective places and times.

The Doctor looked closely at Rose at his side, almost expecting some sort of afterthought. Sure, they’ve been together for almost four years and he trusted her and her love more than anything else in the entire universe, but he would always give her an escape chance.

Feeling his gaze on her, the girl turned towards her husband and smiled sweetly at him.

“I made my choice a long time ago” she said, answering the unspoken question “And I’m never gonna leave you”

With a soft noise halfway through a sigh and a hiccup, he lowered his head until he was eyelevel with his wife and kissed her reverently, his hands slowly caressing her swollen belly with loving movements.

This time the familiar sound of the Tardis dematerializing didn’t break them apart.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there guys! I hope you liked this story ^.^ I'm not entirely sure about this one so if you want leave me a kudos or a comment to let me know you appreciated it, it would really mean a lot! See you next time ❤ *waves*


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